A Love Before Time
By: Tsuki no Miko


Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! and the related characters belong to AIC, Pioneer, and other people.

Author's Note: This is the last part to this story, hopefully. It will also probably be the last story I post for awhile. I'm sorry I've taken so long getting this chapter out, I've had a lot of other things to do.

Also, I'm sorry for not warning you all more about the content in the third chapter. If some of you had actually read my note at the beginning, maybe I wouldn't have gotten some of the remarks I have received.

Warning: Character death...I'm not telling who. =X And no, I'm not THAT obvious.

A Love Before Time: Part 4
By: Tsuki no Miko

Getting onto Hoshi's ship was an easier task than Tenchi expected it to be, even after he invited them over. Maybe it was too easy.

"This place is huge, Washu. Do you know where they are?" Aeka asked, glancing around the ship.

Washu didn't answer at first. She simply stood in the hall as Tenchi and Aeka waited for an answer.

"What is it, Washu?" Tenchi asked.

"It's nothing." Washu said. "They're this way."

Washu lead Aeka and Tenchi through the twisted halls of the ship which looked alot smaller on the outside.

"Haven't we been here already, Washu?" Tenchi asked.

"No, just come on." She said, never looking back at them.

Tenchi and Aeka simply glanced at each other and followed once again.


"They'll be here shortly. Its only a matter of their sense of direction now." Hoshi said, throwing a blanket over Ryoko.

Ryoko tried to speak, but found it difficult to even keep her eyes open. She knew what was happening to her. Hoshi was draining her energy to use as his own. He knew as well as Ryoko did what Tenchi and the others had planned.

Hoshi laughed as he looked down at her.

"What a pathetic creature you've turned out to be. But you'll be finished off soon enough and in just enough time for your precious Tenchi to see."

"Leave him alone." She barely whispered, trying again to raise herself off the floor.

"And where exactly do you think you're going?" He said, pushing her back to the floor. "Sometimes its time to just quit fighting, Ryoko. It's a wise person who knows when they're finished."

Ryoko didn't reply, her anger built inside of her, but the angrier she became, the pressure pushed her harder onto the floor.


"Where are we Washu?" Tenchi asked, looking around a large hall.

"This looks like a ball room." Aeka said.

Washu didn't answer either of them. Her attention was focused on two figures across the room.

"Well, well. You're here already." Hoshi said. "I'm impressed."

"Ryoko!" Tenchi said, "Are you alright?"

She didn't answer. She didn't even move.

"What have you done to her!?" Tenchi shouted, advancing on Hoshi.

"Don't." Washu said calmly, holding her hand up to stop Tenchi.

"Washu?" Aeka asked, watching her curiously.

"Let me handle this, Tenchi." Washu said, igniting an energy sword.

Hoshi laughed.

"You're going to fight me?"

Washu nodded.

"Fine, fine. Just remember that you don't have all of your power, she does." Hoshi said, grabbing Ryoko's wrist to expose her gems.

"Stop talking Hoshi." Washu said, moving toward the center of the room.

Hoshi grinned maliciously and walked to the center of the room, his own sword at his side.

Aeka glanced over to Tenchi nervously, but Tenchi was watching Ryoko's lifeless form.

"We have to get over to her..." He said absently.

"Once they start to fight, Tenchi, we'll go get her." Aeka said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

Tenchi looked at Aeka and nodded and they both focused their attention back to Washu and Hoshi in the center of the large room.

Washu stood quietly, waiting for Hoshi to strike first. Hoshi smirked and swung his sword quickly at Washu's head. She easily blocked it.

"You're going to have to do better than that." She said, quickly advancing on him, rapidly attacking him from all directions.

Hoshi grimaced, barely keeping up with her attacks.

"What's wrong, Hoshi? Its hard work when you have to fight instead of playing mind games, isn't it?" Washu said, pushing him back.

"We'll see, won't we?" He shouted, flying toward her.

"Let's go, Tenchi." Aeka said, grabbing his attention from the fight and pulling him across the room.

"Where do you two think you're going?" Hoshi shouted, firing an energy blast at them.

"Run Tenchi." Aeka said.

"What about you?" He said.

"Just go." She shouted at him as he ran toward Ryoko.

Aeka quickly generated a shield around her just before the energy blast hit and sent her crashing into the wall.

"Aeka! Are you ok?" Tenchi shouted as Washu attacked Hoshi again.

"I'm fine." Aeka said, slowly standing up and running over to Tenchi and Ryoko. "Is she alright?"

"She's freezing." Tenchi said, grabbing Ryoko's hand. "She's still breathing. We have to get her out of here. Aeka, help me move her."

"She isn't moving, Tenchi." Aeka said.

"Hoshi must still have some control on her. That means he's not using all his power to fight Washu."

"She's barely holding him off as it is." Aeka said worriedly.

"Don't worry, Aeka. I'm sure Washu has everything under control."


"They won't be able to get her out of here. Not while I'm still alive." Hoshi growled, glaring coldly at Washu.

"Then we don't have a problem, do we?" Washu said, gathering as much of her energy as she could.

Hoshi scoffed and sprang at Washu, his sword piercing her side and tearing into her as she screamed.

The energy she was gathering was released suddenly and Tenchi and Aeka were thrown back and knocked unconscious as the ship's bridge filled with thick, black smoke.


When Tenchi awoke he found himself on the bridge of Ryo-Ohki. He slowly looked around, seeing no one.

"What happened...?" He asked to himself aloud.

"This did." He heard a quiet voice say to him.

"Ryoko...you're ok now?" He said, as he got up and walked over to where she was leaning heavily against Ryo-Ohki's control panel.

"Not really, Tenchi. But I've been worse." She said, keeping herself thoroughly covered with the blanket Hoshi had thrown on her earlier.

"Where's Aeka and Washu?"

"Aeka's over there." She said, pointing to Aeka's unconscious form on the other side of the ship. "She'll be fine."

"What about Washu? Where is she?"

Ryoko didn't answer him.

"Ryoko, where is she?" He asked again.

Ryoko still didn't answer him. All she did was press a few buttons on the control panel and the sight of Hoshi's ship - or what was left of it - flashed onto one of the view screens.

"She didn't get out, Tenchi. Or if she did, I haven't been able to find her. Her link with me is gone completely. I don't think she made it, Tenchi. I really don't." She said quietly, falling back into her chair painfully.

Tenchi only stood at the control panel, staring at the view screen of the ruined ship.

"Hoshi was destroyed as well, obviously. She saved us Tenchi. We owe her more than to stand her and cry for her. Let's go home." She said, her voice quietening every time she spoke.

Tenchi nodded as Ryo-Ohki sped up and headed back to Earth.


By the time Ryo-Ohki arrived at Earth, Ryoko was unconscious and Aeka had learned of Washu's fate. Ryoko was carried into the house where everyone else learned of what had happened on Hoshi's ship.

"Is Ryoko going to be alright, Tenchi?" Sasami asked, her tears overflowing and spilling down her cheeks.

"I'm sure she'll be fine after she's gotten some rest, Sasami." Tenchi said, sitting on the couch.

"Poor Washu..." Mihoshi said, bawling loudly.

"I should have been the one fighting Hoshi, not her." Tenchi said.

"Tenchi, she knew that you didn't have enough energy to defeat him." Aeka said, sadly.

"But how did she have that much energy?" He asked.

"The gems." Ryoko said, limping out into the living room.

"Ryoko, you shouldn't be walking around. Go get some rest." Tenchi said.

"You wanted to know how Washu had so much energy...The gems. She had them all gathered together on the bridge of that ship. She had her old powers back and that's how she was able to defeat him."

"What are you talking about, Ryoko? Her old power?"

"The gems are her's. Each has an equal amount of her power distributed throughout them. Her's is one of the greatest powers in the universe. She's why I was so powerful."

Everyone just looked at Ryoko; confused.

"Washu is a goddess of the Multiverse, Tenchi. These gems are her power. She gave them up twenty thousand years ago."

"So she can't be dead." Tenchi said, hopefully. "If she is a goddess and her power's so great, she can't possibly be dead."

"She's not dead, she was taken back by her sisters. Her power will be regenerated, but after that, I don't know what will become of her."

"What about the gems? If they held her power and she doesn't have any, does that mean you don't either, Ryoko?" Sasami asked.

Ryoko shook her head.

"My power is reduced to my own power now. These gems are of no use to me now."

"I wonder if we'll ever see her again..." Mihoshi said.

Ryoko got up and walked back to her room. Tenchi got up and followed her into the room.

"Ryoko..." He said.

"What is it, Tenchi?" She asked, lying on her bed slowly.

"Are you going to be alright?"

She nodded.

"I'll be fine, Tenchi. Will you be alright?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know that you wanted to be the one to fight Hoshi. You wanted to be the one that saved the day."

"I don't want to be the hero, Ryoko, if that's what you're implying."

"It's not. I just meant that you feel that you had the obligation to be fighting instead of her. Washu knew what she was doing, Tenchi. She knew that she needed to be the one fighting him. She did what she felt was right and its not right to dishonor the choice she made with your feelings."

Tenchi sat on the bed next to Ryoko.

"I still can't help but feel that I should have been the one to die and not her."

"And what would have happened if you had died instead. Where would Aeka, Sasami, and Mihoshi be? Where would I be? Washu saw the opportunity to save us all and she took it." She said, touching his hand softly.

"I know you're right. I just can't agree with you..."

"You will, Tenchi. Once time has had the chance to heal the wounds or the guilt that you feel, you'll see what I mean."

Tenchi smiled at her.

"When did you become so wise, Ryoko?"

"I always have been, you're just now noticing." She said, smiling back.

Tenchi held her hand to his mouth and kissed it softly.

"Get your rest, Ryoko. You need it after all that's happened." He said.

Ryoko nodded, turning away from him.

Tenchi got up and walked out of her room and quietly closed the door behind him.

Ryoko laid on her bed in the dark, staring at the wall. Tears filled her eyes when she thought of what she had said to Tenchi and when she remembered what Hoshi had done to her.

She decided to forget it all. Nobody in the house was going to find out about what she had gone through on that ship, just like they didn't know what had happened in her past. It was just another of her mysteries, and like her mother, she had many.

She held her hand to her mouth and kissed where Tenchi had moments prior. She wasn't ever going to make him know. She knew what he was willing to risk for her and that's all that mattered, even if she knew, deep down, that he would do that for all of the girls. But he hadn't risked his life for all the girls, he risked it for her and that's all she would ever care about.

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The End

A/n:
I know, I know!! This story took FOREVER! Sorry, sorry! I hope you liked this story anyway though...